Topic: A weather web cam....

[Garth Bock]

This is really something else....

http://www.roundshot.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d844/f861.cfm

The image you see is supposed to be live. The webcam rotates 360 degrees automatically.

Here is the info about it...

http://www.roundshot.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d438/d928/f913.cfm

[tomcj2]

Looks Great, but is it really $13,800 (US)?

[tinplate]

Cool, but not even close to being in my budget. I think the price is Swiss Francs. 13,200 Swiss Francs is about $11,800.

[tinplate]

So how long before one of the weather hardware wizards out there come up with a design I can build under $200 that I can put a relatively inexpensive camera into? It's a great idea.

[SLOweather]

How good of a programmer are you? Get a high res camera, and a hemispherical mirror about the size of a pinball pr ping pong ball. Point the camera straight up looking into the mirror. Apply transforms to the resulting image to convert it from a reverse fisheye to a panorama.

[NiceBill]

I put mine on a TV antenna rotor I bought on the bay for $35.00.

Bill>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[ncpilot]

I'm not sure about their claim of "live" panoramic view, at least not the way it looked in the video.

If you have a web camera than can pan, you maybe could create set points, let it automatically sequence through set points, take a picture at each point. You can get software to then create a panoramic single image.

http://www.ptgui.com/
http://www.labnol.org/internet/pictures/stitch-digital-photos-create-360-degree-panorama-images-online/3216/
http://javascript.internet.com/miscellaneous/panoramic-image-viewer.html

Found those with a quick Google search...

[capeweather]

That image can't be live. Everytime you hit refresh it starts back at the same spot and there is no way the camera could reset to home position that quickly. It's cool and the picture quality is superb. But it's definitely not live.

[kray1000]

A sure way to tell is to wait until it's snowing, and if you keep seeing the same snowflakes over and over, you know it's Memorex.

[ncpilot]

A sure way to tell is to wait until it's snowing, and if you keep seeing the same snowflakes over and over, you know it's Memorex.

I guess you are assuming we're all old enough to get your reference??? 

I am... 

[SLOweather]

Me too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkt8Dwzl6Sg

[ncpilot]

Didn't watch the video, but does this go back to the era of "it takes a licking and keeps on ticking"?

"see how slowly the pearl drops?"

I'm surprised those brain cells are still firing...

Hey, we could play a game of who can remember the oldest commercials (on tv that is!)--instead of the direct method of just putting our age in our sigs........ LOL

(it certainly shows the depth that certain commercials penetrate and stick)

[SLOweather]

Didn't watch the video, but does this go back to the era of "it takes a licking and keeps on ticking"?

Nah, the Memorex ads were for cassette tape that dates to the 70s and 80s. John Cameron Swazey and his Timex commercials started in the late 50s, still in black and white.

Hey, we could play a game of who can remember the oldest commercials (on tv that is!)--instead of the direct method of just putting our age in our sigs........ LOL

Well, the Timex ad certainly qualifies. I remember the Speedy Alka-Seltzer commercials, Anacin, Doan's Pills, and all manner of cigarette ads, among others taking up valuable neuronic space in my head.

[tinplate]

I liked the people flying down into the cars
Hertz '60's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLSKtgf5AD4

replaced in the 70's by Hertz's OJ Simpson ads.

[Cienega32]

I liked the people flying down into the cars
Hertz '60's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLSKtgf5AD4

replaced in the 70's by Hertz's OJ Simpson ads.

Wasn't Hertz accused of aiding and abetting, forcing them to pull the OJ ads?

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... right, OJ?"